When The Last Petal Falls
by keotey1228
Summary: "Jack, look out!" Jack turned around and saw a large sand ax. Everything went black. Pitch Black. One-shot about what would have happened if Jack had gotten hit by the sand ax.


**Somewhat AU. When Jack was about to get hit by Pitch's sand axe and but Sandy came back and pulled him away.**

"Jack, look out!" Jack turned around and saw a large sand axe. Everything went black. Pitch Black.

…

"He is not a guardian," a beautiful woman pushed back her bright red hair. She looked at the four guardians in front of her. The Easter Bunny was holding a greying Jack Frost in his arms.

"He was chosen by Man in Moon. Never took oath," North tried to reason. The woman thought for a moment, then sighed.

"Only this one time, North," her wings extended and she glided towards the young boy.

"Thank you, Mother Nature," North nodded in thanks. Mother Nature slid the boy out of Bunnymund's furry arms and started to gracefully fly down the hallway.

She heard four pairs of footsteps behind her, but then they stopped as she heard one of her flower nurses intercept them.

She came into the closest room and set the small boy on the bed. She reached behind her and pulled her hair up into a quick, but neat, bun.

She put her hands to work.

…

Tooth glanced up from where she had her head on North's shoulder. He looked down at her solemnly before looking where she was.

Bunny had been pacing since Jack was out of his arms.

Sandy had offered dream sand to all of them, but they all refused. Everyone wanted to know what happened when Mother Nature came out.

He felt awful to have come back right after Jack had gotten hit. If he would have come a second sooner…

"I should have done something," Bunny sat solemnly in a chair. They all stared at him.

"Bunny," Tooth said. "It wasn't…"

"No!" Bunny put forth only a small effort into his yell. "All I did was yell, 'Look out'. I could have done something…"

Nobody countered. It made sense. "But it wasn't your fault."

Bunny glanced at North. "He fought for us, and he knew the risks. We also cannot play Blame Game."

Bunny forged a small smile as small as they could come. The hallway once again fell into silence.

Tooth resumed her place on North's shoulder and he began to pick at his finger nails, flicking them uncaringly onto the floor.

Bunny stood up and unconsciously started to pace again. Sandy's eyes once again headed towards his lap.

He should be the one to feel guilty.

The door in front of them opened. Everybody stood up, except for Bunny, who started to cautiously hop towards the door.

Mother Nature came out. She looked at them all in the eye with an unreadable look. She raised a vase that nobody had noticed in her hands. She gave it to the one closest to her, which was Bunny.

"When the last petal falls…" She nodded at them, and moved aside. They all stood still, no one wanting to be the first one to enter.

Bunny looked down at the single flower in his paws. Its beautiful purple petals a misdemeanor as what they signaled, was not beautiful.

He knew if he looked up, he would see inside the room, and he didn't want to. He didn't want to know. Want to know what he had caused. What he could have prevented.

Tooth was the first to move forward. Whether of curiosity or motherly instinct, she walked into the room. North shortly followed.

Bunny glanced back at Sandy to him walking forward too. The passed the doorframe at the same time to see North and Tooth sitting on the right side of a bed. Under the thin, baby blue blanket, Jack was sleeping.

His skin, no longer pale, was almost a dark grey. His usually snow white hair was not as shiny as before. Tooth's fingers ran slowly through it, as if to stop it from darkening.

The only movement was from the shallow rise and fall of his chest.

Sandy walks to the foot of the bed as Bunny walks to the left. Mother Nature walks in and carefully takes the vase from Bunny, who had forgotten he was still holding it.

She looked down at Jack and tilted her head, as if pondering something. "He's not mine, is he?"

Only North looked up. He shook his head. "Man in Moon…"

Mother Nature frowned. "Odd. Most nature spirits are born from me…"

Nobody answered, and Mother Nature walked to the door, setting the vase on the table by the door. As she walked out, North called after her quietly.

"Manny must have known he was special…"

She nodded from the hallway and walked slowly down the corridor.

Tooth slides her hand into Jack's. His usual coldness was not there. He was still cold, but not frosty cold. Dark cold.

She looks to her left and grabs North's hand. He takes hold of Sandy's hand, who grabs Bunny's paw. Bunny stared at the hold before looking at his fellow guardians.

His gaze slid to Jack, and he stayed like that for a moment, before reaching his paw out and grabbing Jack's other hand.

They all turned to look towards the flower. Another purple petal fell. It shriveled up as it landed on the table. Only 3 were left.

The guardians all look back to each other in silence. Tooth sighs quietly before directing her attention to Jack.

"Jack… you always did care for the children. You may said that you weren't qualified… but you would have made a perfect guardians." She looked up to North, motioning him to continue.

He pursed his lips before speaking. "You may not be a guardian… but you still guarded. You even helped to guard us when we needed you. We left you alone for 300 years, which I can now truthfully say was the worst thing we could have done.

Sandy started to form a small object out of sand. When his hands moved away, a small golden snowflake lie in his palm. He floated upwards and set it down on Jack's lap.

When he was back in his place, his hands once again holding the others, he looked towards Bunny. He didn't say anything for a while, and they all believed he wasn't going to say anything.

"I always said you didn't care," They looked up at Bunny. He kept his gaze on Jack. "That you just made a mess wherever you went… I see now that I was wrong. You didn't mess with us because you were a bad kid. You didn't create snowstorms because you were bored. You only created trouble because it was the only thing you knew how to do. You had no purpose before, and we left you alone to try and figure it out. And for that… I'm sorry."

Tooth nodded. "I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry."

Sandy nods. They all look up just in time to see the last petal on the flower fall. They hear a small gasp escape from Jack's mouth. His breathing cut short midway, and stops forever.

North gulps. "The last petal may have fallen, but you will never be gone, Jack. Good luck to where you go, now."

Tooth lets a tear slip and nods, not trusting her voice.

Bunny's ears fall back. "I hope there's plenty of snow where you're going, mate."

…

…

…

**Okay. Get ahold of yourself. Stop crying, if you are. **

…

…

…

…

**Okay. Good. Now that you've stopped crying (or never did in the first place), I have a challenge.**

**Challenge 1: Have the guardians (somehow) be able to watch the movie. Ex. Father Time gives them a DVD with the movie on it because the Man in Moon wanted the guardians to see it. Especially see Jack's beginning, and memories, etc.**

**Challenge 2: Have Jack tell the guardians (in detail) what happened when he went to drop Sophie off at her house and how he got his memory box, and what happened after he flew off, after he 'ruined Easter'. (' is because he didn't). **

**I had a question I really wanted to ask… Hmmm… Oh well. I'll think of it.**

**But I always wondered what would have happened if Sandy didn't come back in time and Jack was hit by Pitch's axe, and thus, this story was born.**


End file.
